Sidney Crosby

Taking the Game by Storm

In 2003, Wayne Gretzky was asked if there was one player out there who might one day break his records. He responded Yes, Sidney Crosby. He's the best player I've seen since Mario (Lemieux). Sidney Crosby is the most heralded junior hockey player since the great Mario Lemieux, and one of the most talked about athletes in the history of hockey. He's shattered seemingly timeless scoring titles and won countless awards, including an unprecedented Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the same season. At age 16, he became the youngest Canadian player to ever score in the World Junior Hockey Championships. In 2005, and not yet 18, he landed a multi-million dollar contract with Reebok, placing him in the same athletic stratosphere as Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Tiger Woods. Yet Sidney Crosby has yet to play one game in the NHL. In fact, he hasn't even been drafted. He sits in limbo, poised on the brink of becoming North America's next great hockey superstar -- or maybe, an innocent victim of NHL greed and obstinacy. Award-winning sports writer Gare Joyce follows Sidney Crosby on his on-ice ascent to national stardom, from his days as a Peewee sensation in Halifax and his international debut at the World Under-18 Tournament in Breclav, Czech Republic -- through his incredible 168-point, 62-game record breaking 2004-2005 season and his Rimouski team's whirlwind pursuit of the Memorial Cup. From arena to arena, city to city, this in-depth story of hockey brings to life a young man who's stirred the imagination of sports writers, hockey fans, scouts and hockey executives from coast to coast, and brought new hope to a beleaguered sport that teeters on the verge of utter collapse.